Vocabulary in context asks which meaning a word carries here. A familiar dictionary meaning may be wrong when the word is figurative or used in a specialized argument. Read the whole sentence, its contrast and the next sentence before deciding what the word contributes.
Reason through the task
Cover the target word and supply a plain paraphrase that keeps the sentence’s logic. Determine whether the word names an action, attitude, measurement or evaluation. Substitute each candidate, then check both meaning and tone. A positive synonym will not fit an ironic description simply because it shares a dictionary sense. Surrounding examples often define the intended meaning more precisely than the isolated word does. Do not select an impressive term until its replacement actually works.
Worked example and a tempting error
Original example: “The committee tempered its praise after learning that the trial had excluded rainy days.” Here tempered means moderated or restrained, not strengthened by heat. The committee still recognizes a promising result but makes its praise less absolute. “Abandoned” goes too far because moderation need not erase approval. “Repeated” fails to explain the change introduced by the omitted conditions. The causal context narrows the word to a revision in degree.
Try a different case
Transfer: “The proposal survived a searching examination of its costs.” Does searching mean lost and looking for its location, or thorough and probing? The latter fits an examination that tests details. A good replacement is “thorough examination.” Explain the clue: survival describes withstanding scrutiny, so the adjective tells us how demanding that scrutiny was. This justification matters more than recognizing a memorized definition.